The Alger-Sullivan museums are over-packed with items that recall the history of Century and the surrounding area. Many of these are photos, some are pieces of machinery or tools, others only trinkets, but almost all of these things have a story attached. Among these artifacts, in a frame hanging inconspicuously on a crowded wall, is an old letter. This is the story of that letter.
Robert Coon was born in 1872 in Michigan. After completing only the fifth grade, he began work at about the age of eleven. As a young man, he held a series of jobs near that state's large cities and in 1899 at the a...